


La musica in fondo al corridoio

by hotcocoa



Series: Bokuroo Week 2016 [2]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, BoKuroo Week 2016, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-02
Updated: 2016-04-02
Packaged: 2018-05-30 05:26:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,800
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6410620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hotcocoa/pseuds/hotcocoa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Day 2: University AU</p><p>Bokuto isn't sure what he wants to do in university, but when he meets a talented pianist who lives on his floor, he finds that he might have a direction after all.</p>
            </blockquote>





	La musica in fondo al corridoio

Bokuto yawned as he left his dorm room, still in pajamas with a towel slung over his shoulder. As he rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, he heard the soft sound of music coming down the hallway. _Really?_ he thought to himself, _who has music playing at this hour on a Saturday morning?_ He himself was only up because his roommate’s snoring was so loud that he couldn’t sleep anymore, and had finally given up and gone to take a shower if for no other reason than to leave the room. As he drew closer to the source of the music, though, Bokuto realized that it was beautiful, like…really beautiful. The open door a few doors down from his own room was clearly the source, and when Bokuto approached it he couldn’t help but peek in.

In front of a beautiful piano sat an even more beautiful man whose eyes were closed, one hidden by the bangs of bangs of his messy jet-black hair, as his fingers moved over the keys in an incredible fluid motion that coaxed such delicate sounds out of such a big instrument. Bokuto thought it was the most beautiful music he had ever heard.

Kuroo let out a sigh as he let the last chord ring out. _I feel pretty good about it, but…_ His train of thought trailed off as he opened his eyes and saw someone standing in his doorway, staring at him in…Kuroo wasn’t sure how he would describe the expression on the man’s face. He raised an eyebrow, half amused and half embarrassed. “Can I help you?” he asked.

Bokuto jumped and felt his face flush—he hadn’t realized he was standing there staring. “I’m sorry,” he said quickly, bowing and introducing himself, “I’m Bokuto Koutarou, I live down the hall. I’m sorry, that was just…wow, you’re really good! What are you doing in school? Shouldn’t you be like performing professionally and stuff?”

Kuroo started and it was his turn to go slightly pink. “I’m Kuroo Tetsurou, and I’m flattered,” he said, “but I hardly think I’m at a professional level.” He sighed, glancing at his keyboard. “I can’t even get anyone to sing this solo…it makes it really hard to get the accompaniment right.”

Bokuto’s eyes widened. “Seriously? Who wouldn’t want to sing with you?”

Kuroo’s head whipped up, trying not to get his hopes up too much. “Really? Would you…want to sing with me?”

Bokuto flushed deeply, trying to backpedal and feeling badly about how hopeful Kuroo looked. “Oh, well, I…I’ve never sung before,” he said quickly, “I’m sure you wouldn’t want me to…” He trailed off as Kuroo’s shoulders slumped. Bokuto squeezed his eyes shut and he made a decision. “Yeah, okay, I can try!” he said brightly.

“Really?” Kuroo’s eyes widened with joy, and Bokuto thought that if he looked this happy there was no way he had made the wrong decision.

“Yeah, sure,” he replied brightly, stepping into the room. “Although…” He glanced back at the open door. “Could we maybe, you know, close the door?”

Kuroo blinked. “Oh, sure, if you want,” he replied, noticing the look of discomfort on Bokuto’s face. “I just prefer to leave it open because the acoustics in this room are weird…” He shrugged. “No one’s complained, so.”

“Thanks,” said Bokuto, closing the door in relief. He really didn’t need the entire dormitory hearing how terrible he sounded.

Kuroo was shuffling though some papers. “Can you read music?” he asked.

Bokuto nodded. “Yeah, I played piano when I was younger…I never could have imagined it could sound the way you play it, though.”

Kuroo chuckled. “Okay, well, here’s the solo, then,” he said, handing the music to him. Bokuto stared down at the marks on the page.

“Uh…what language is this?” he asked uncertainly.

“Oh.” Kuroo’s face fell. “It’s Italian. I guess you probably don’t know how to read Italian, huh.”

“I’m sorry,” Bokuto said, trying not to sound relieved that he had gotten out of having to sing. “But, I’m sure you’ll find someone—” The words died in his throat when he saw how disappointed Kuroo looked. He scratched the back of his neck uncomfortably and questioned his sanity as he started again, “I’m sure you’ll find someone to sing with you, but, you just need to someone to practice with right now, right?”

Kuroo smiled a small smile. “I don’t want to inconvenience you,” he said, reaching out for the music.

“No, it’s okay,” Bokuto replied, “I can just sing the notes. I think. If you want me to.”

Kuroo looked at him with a combination of uncertainty and gratitude. “If you really don’t mind…” A grin broke out across his face. “That would be great!”

Bokuto smiled shakily as Kuroo pointed out where he would come in and how his first note would fit in with the chord progression. When Kuroo sat back down at the piano Bokuto wondered if he hadn’t made a mistake after all, but then Kuroo was playing and Bokuto was swept up in the music, staring at Kuroo in awe.

He looked at Kuroo in confusion when the music stopped and found Kuroo looking back at him expectantly. “That’s where you were supposed to come in,” Kuroo told him.

Bokuto blushed. “Oh! I’m sorry,” he said, looking down at his music. “I’ll pay attention this time.”

“Okay.” Kuroo breathed in, closed his eyes, and started playing, feeling the smoothness of the keys beneath his fingers and listening to the sounds of hammers striking taut steel. He liked to experience the music fully, and nothing but the music, letting it fill him up and in turn channeling it into what he was playing, and so Kuroo always kept his eyes closed while he played.

His eyes snapped open when Bokuto started singing.

There was an unmistakable uncertainty and waver in his voice, but even so Kuroo could tell that there was no reason for it. Bokuto’s voice was strong and rich and vibrant and _gorgeous_. Sometimes he fumbled, slipped up, but Kuroo compensated for it and he could never remember feeling like this when playing.

He could never remember keeping his eyes open while he played, either.

They were trained on Bokuto as he let the last chord ring out. Bokuto looked up and blushed when he saw Kuroo staring at him. He bowed. “I did my best, I’m sorry!”

“Dude,” Kuroo replied, “why are you apologizing? That was…holy shit, are you sure you’ve never sung before.”

Bokuto straightened up, smiling brightly. “Really? I mean, sometimes I sing along to the radio and stuff, you know, so I guess it would make sense that I’m good at singing!”

Kuroo laughed along with him. “Okay, I’m pretty sure everyone does that so I don’t think that’s it, but damn,” he said, shaking his head. He looked at Bokuto thoughtfully. “What are you studying?”

Bokuto scrunched up his face. “I’m not sure yet, I’m not that good at school so I don’t know…”

Kuroo leaned back. “Have you thought about majoring in music?” he asked casually.

“You really think I could?” Bokuto asked excitedly. His face was shining so much that Kuroo was torn between laughing and just staring in awe. He opted for both.

“Yeah, you’ll have to learn how to read Italian though, if you want to sing,” he told him.

Bokuto groaned. “I’m so bad at languages…”

“I’ll help you,” Kuroo offered. “You just need to learn how to read and pronounce stuff, you don’t have to actually know the language. You’ll have to do it with other languages too, but that’ll be easier once you can do it with Italian.”

Bokuto looked down at his music skeptically. “I don’t know…”

“Come here,” Kuroo offered, dragging the piano bench over to his desk and gesturing for Bokuto to sit down next to him. “You’ll be fine.”

Bokuto obliged and spent the rest of the day in Kuroo’s room, shower and snoring roommate forgotten as they quickly got off track with the Italian, Kuroo laughing at Bokuto’s pronunciation and Bokuto shoving him in retaliation (“hey, be careful with the hands, those are a precious asset!” “yeah, I bet they are” “shut up!”), and both of them laughing and sharing stories about their high schools and friends from home.

Over the next few weeks, Bokuto spent almost all of his time in Kuroo’s room, when he wasn’t in classes or the all-important dining hall. He had enrolled in voice lessons and joined Kuroo’s composition class. They always did their composition homework, and Kuroo often helped him with other homework as well. Sometimes Bokuto would distract Kuroo with his absent-minded singing, and sometimes Kuroo would play the piano while Bokuto just listened. Most of the time, they laughed and joked and got what was probably way too many requests to _please quiet down oh my god don’t you ever sleep?_

“Hey, Bokuto,” Kuroo said one day, “have you thought about entering the concerto competition?”

“Huh?” Bokuto looked up from the reading he was doing. “What’s that?”

“You can compete to sing a solo at the end-of-the-year concert,” Kuroo explained. “I think they said they’d be choosing three winners.”

“Whoa!” Bokuto’s face lit up. “That sounds so cool! I could sing in front of everybody!”

“This from the guy who wouldn’t sing with the door open a couple months ago,” Kuroo remarked drily.

“Hey, that’s when I thought I couldn’t sing!” Bokuto defended himself.

Kuroo laughed. “Anyway, you’d need an accompanist,” he said casually, leaning back in his chair.

Bokuto’s face screwed up in concentration. “Hmm…I wonder how I could find one…,” he mused.

Kuroo stared at him. “Bro,” he said.

Bokuto looked over at him. “What?”

Kuroo stared pointedly at his piano before looking back at Bokuto, who returned his gaze with a confused look. “Dude, how did you even get into university?” he asked exasperatedly. “I can accompany you, dumbass.”

Bokuto’s mouth formed a wide ‘o’ and he jumped up excitedly. “Bro, that would be so awesome! You and me, performing for the whole school! Haha, we’ll steal the show!”

Kuroo smiled back, but warned, “We’ll have to practice a lot, you know. They only accept three auditions so it’ll be really competitive.”

“Yeah! We can do it!” Bokuto said, clenching his fists in determination. “Let’s practice right now!”

Kuroo looked at him in surprise. “Right now? Bro, you haven’t even picked out a piece. Also, we have homework due tomorrow,” he pointed out.

Bokuto slouched back into his chair with a pout. “Fine, but I’ll pick out a piece tomorrow and we’ll practice. Every day!”

A smile played across Kuroo’s lips as he turned back to his homework. “Sounds like a plan.”

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry that this doesn't quite reach bokuroo level. I'm thinking of continuing this work, though (please let me know if you would be interested!). Thank you so much for reading!


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